Bush built anti-terrorism infrastructure

Updated 3:25 pm, Friday, April 26, 2013

Former President George W. Bush makes a “W” with his fingers at the dedication ceremony for the George W. Bush Library and Museum. Bush's record looks better as time passes.

Former President George W. Bush makes a “W” with his fingers at the dedication ceremony for the George W. Bush Library and Museum. Bush's record looks better as time passes.

Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images

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DALLAS, TX - APRIL 25: Former U.S. President George W. Bush (2nd R) shakes hands with his father former President George H.W. Bush (2nd L) as they attend the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center with his wife, former first lady Laura Bush (R), and his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush (L), April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. The Bush library, which is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, with more than 70 million pages of paper records, 43,000 artifacts, 200 million emails and four million digital photographs, will be opened to the public on May 1, 2013. The library is the 13th presidential library in the National Archives and Records Administration system. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

DALLAS, TX - APRIL 25: Former U.S. President George W. Bush (2nd R) shakes hands with his father former President George H.W. Bush (2nd L) as they attend the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential

DALLAS, TX - APRIL 25: (L-R) U.S. President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, and former President Bill Clinton attend the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. The Bush library, which is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, with more than 70 million pages of paper records, 43,000 artifacts, 200 million emails and four million digital photographs, will be opened to the public on May 1, 2013. The library is the 13th presidential library in the National Archives and Records Administration system. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

DALLAS, TX - APRIL 25: (L-R) U.S. President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, and former President Bill Clinton attend the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center April 25, 2013

DALLAS, TX - APRIL 25: Former President Bill Clinton's speaks during the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. The Bush library, which is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, with more than 70 million pages of paper records, 43,000 artifacts, 200 million emails and four million digital photographs, will be opened to the public on May 1, 2013. The library is the 13th presidential library in the National Archives and Records Administration system. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

DALLAS, TX - APRIL 25: Former President Bill Clinton's speaks during the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. The Bush library, which is located on the

Clare Boothe Luce liked to say that “a great man is one sentence.” Presidents, in particular. The most common “one sentence” for George W. Bush (whose legacy is being reassessed as his presidential library opens) is: “He kept us safe.”

Not quite right. He did not just keep us safe. He created the entire anti-terror infrastructure that continues to keep us safe.

That homage was paid, wordlessly, by Barack Obama, who vilified Bush's anti-terror policies as a candidate, then continued them as president: indefinite detention, rendition, warrantless wiretaps, special forces and drone warfare and, most notoriously, Guantanamo, which Obama so ostentatiously denounced — until he found it indispensable.

Quite a list. Which is why there was not one successful terror bombing on U.S. soil from 9/11 until last week. The Boston Marathon attack was an obvious failure; there is a difference between 3,000 dead and three. And on the other side of the ledger are the innumerable plots broken up since 9/11.

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Moreover, Bush's achievement was not just infrastructure. It was war. The Afghan campaign overthrew the Taliban, decimated al-Qaida and expelled it from its haven. Yet that success is today derogated with the cheap and lazy catchphrase — “He got us into two wars.”

As if Afghanistan was some unilateral Bush adventure foisted on the American people. As if Obama himself did not call it a “war of necessity”; and Joe Biden, the most just war since World War II.

The dilemma in Afghanistan was what to do after the brilliant, nine-week victory? There was no good answer. Even with the benefit of seven years' grinding experience under his predecessor, Obama got it wrong. His Afghan “surge” cost hundreds of American lives without having changed the country's prospects.

Iraq was, of course, far more problematic. Critics conveniently forget that the invasion had broad support from the public and Congress, including from those who became the highest foreign-policy figures in the Obama administration — Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and Biden.

And they forget the context — crumbling sanctions that would in short order have restored Saddam Hussein to full economic and regional power, well positioning him, post-sanctions, to again threaten his neighbors and restart his WMD program.

Was the war worth it? Inconclusive wars never yield a good answer.

The Iraq War had three parts. The initial toppling of the regime was a remarkable success — like Afghanistan, rapid and with relatively few U.S. casualties.

The occupation was a disaster, rooted in the fundamental contradiction between means and ends.

Finally, the surge, a courageous Bush decision taken against near-universal opposition, that produced the greatest U.S. military turnaround since the Inchon landing.

As with Lincoln, it took Bush years of agonizing bloody stalemate before he finally found his general and his strategy. Yet, for all the terrible cost, Bush bequeathed to Obama a strategically won war. Obama had one task: Conclude a status-of-forces agreement and thus secure Iraq as a major regional ally. He failed utterly. Iraq today is more fragile, sectarian and Iranian-influenced than it was when Bush left office.

I suspect history will see Bush as the man who, by trial and error but also with prescience and principle, established the structures that will take us through another long twilight struggle, and enable us to prevail.